SANTA CRUZ COUNTY EVENTS

Examination of mental health, racial justice, and human rights implications of the systemic use of solitary confinement in United States prisons, in the context of mass incarceration in the U.S. It is a call to action to end solitary confinement torture.

The wHOLE

(Ramon Hamilton, 2015, 15 min, USA)

The raw authenticity and emotion of this film takes viewers inside the hole (solitary confinement), one of the most hidden aspects of the mass incarceration criminal justice system of in the U.S. Made with cast and crew members who have spent a combined 7 years in solitary.

A veteran of the U.S. civil rights movement, Reverend James M. Lawson Jr. is one of the most important social justice leaders of our time. This is the story of his commitment to the value and dignity of work, his legacy of nonviolent activism, and his contributions to labor and civil rights.

Golden Lands, Working Hands

(Fred Glass, 1999, 73 min, USA)

The authoritative work on California labor history by the education director of the California Teachers Association. Selections from the ten-part series will be screened.

Fiercely independent meatpackers of Local union P-9 overwhelmingly reject a $2/hour wage cut contract offer and strike Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, in 1985. P-9's international Food and Commercial Workers Union disagrees with the Local's strategy. After six months of scabs, replacement workers, union in-fighting and leadership struggle, and National Guard occupation, the Local is forced to submit. Was it worth it?

Moving personal stories of the poverty, trauma and addiction that often lead to crime, and an inside look at the challenges and opportunities for those transitioning from a life behind bars back into society in Santa Cruz County, a community renowned for its forward thinking criminal justice reform efforts.

A Living Wage

(Dan Albright & Andy Keyes, 2016, 21 min, USA)

A fast food fry cook and a barrista are at the front lines of the struggle in Boston for a $15 minimum wage and union rights. The film follows them over the course of a year as they organize for economic justice, help build a major grassroots social movement, and force local politicians into action.

Limpiadores

(Fernando Luis González Mitjáns, 2015, 39 min, UK)

The life and struggles of the invisible migrant workers that make sure offices and classrooms are clean and tidy before professors and students arrive for their morning classes at some of London’s most prestigious universities.

Speakers: Megan Joseph, Director of Community Organizing, United Way of Santa Cruz County; Valéria Miranda, Co-Founder, Food for Change

A realistic view of what it’s like to be a woman carpenter. Women in the trade talk honestly about the challenges as well as the pride they feel from their work. The film title refers to the official women’s group of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

The Cost of Construction

(Jordan Ehrlich, 2016, 90 min, USA)

A string of controversial deaths occurred in Las Vegas during the construction of MGM's CityCenter, the most expensive private construction project in US History. The film looks at worker safety nationally, revealing a pattern of negligence at the highest corporate and government levels.

How To Let Go Of The World: And Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change

(Josh Fox, 2016, 125 min, USA)

The Oscar Nominated director of Gasland continues in his deeply personal style, investigating climate change  the greatest threat our world has ever known. Traveling to 12 countries on 6 continents, the film acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences and asks, what is it that climate change can’t destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away?

Intimate stories from the secret CIA drone war on terror. People living under drones in Pakistan and drone pilots struggling with killing via joysticks in the US in the biggest targeted assassination program in history. And the people willing to stand up against the violations of civil liberties and fight for transparency, accountability and justice.

Speaker: Ray McGovern, retired CIA analyst and intelligence expert

Event Hosts: VFW Post 5888, Veterans For Peace, People United for Peace

This director's cut presents devastating evidence of federal law enforcement's choice to prioritize violence, control and obfuscation over negotiation, diplomacy and transparency in its siege of the compound of the Branch Davidians, a religious group near Waco, TX.

When Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison, courageous South African musicians broke through Apartheid’s barriers to form a 500-voice, multiracial children’s choir. Threatened with bombs and thwarted at every turn, they prevailed and railroaded across the country aboard The Peace Train, singing their way into the hearts, minds and soul of a divided nation.

Reception for the filmmakers with more Q & A following the showing of their film When Voices Meet. South African singer, choir director and activist Sharon Katz will perform songs from The Peace Train project featured in the film. Joining her will be the Santa Cruz Peace Chorale and Zabalaza, directed by Aileen Vance. Light refreshments will be served.

When the government privatized janitorial services in its offices as part of the austerity program, these feisty women formed a union, went to court, picketed the ministry of finance, and helped defeat the government.

SAN JOSE EVENTS

(Brad Rettele, 2014, 45 min, USA)
Higher education's best kept secret: The adjunct teachers that educate America's college students are marginalized economically and academically. These teachers are standing up to a system that is unjust to them and to students, and which threatens the integrity of higher education itself.